Herein is ANGEL and SMALLVILLE.
And if another frickin’ person asks me to rearrange it yet another way to accommodate their television viewing schedule, I’m going back to putting it all in one post.
An additional thought on ANGEL below
PAD
SMALLVILLE—On the surface, this week’s episode featuring a villain who’s a combination of Magneto and Don Juan (Magnetic personality? Get it?) seems a throwback to the Kryptonite Villain-of-the-week that marked much of the show’s early years. But those episodes always seemed more about the villain. This go around there’s far more emphasis on how such an individual impacts on the characters whom we’ve grown to know and care about. Granted, yet another convenient coma/memory loss springs to the resolution, and granted, the roads of Smallville continue to be a claims adjustor’s nightmare (my guess is that State Farm wouldn’t touch the place with a ten meter cattle prod.) It was still an entertaining adventure. However, I have to say that the Clark/Lana dynamic is stuck in spin cycle at this point. We must date…but we mustn’t…but I don’t want to see you with other people…oh, let’s get it on…wait, we mustn’t. Hamlet made snap judgments compared to these two. It’s almost as if they’re on an emotional hamster wheel because Clark can’t have any action (no pun intended) until he marries Lois. I don’t know that that’s an edict or anything, but that’s what it feels like. Which means we’re watching the illusion of change between Clark and Lana, and sooner or later, you see through illusions and realize it just ain’t there. That’s probably why anything having to do with Lex, Lionel and Chloe is so interesting: Because we really don’t know for sure what’s going to happen with them. Oh, say…didn’t Pete Ross used to be in this show?
ANGEL—Wesley’s been a fifth wheel for the season thus far, but wow, was this worth waiting for. In the long term, there’s some definite set-up for some sort of Big Bad who’s targeted Wolfram and Hart in general and Angel in particular. In the short term, not only were the dynamics between Wes and his father fascinating, but the twists were unexpected and the shoot-out was a shocker. And the look on Fred’s face when she says that Wesley did what he did because his father was threatening a friend, and Wesley says significantly, “I shot him because he was threatening YOU.” Finally. Finally finally finally he’s making it clear to her just how strongly he feels about her. However, here’s my one problem. I can see why they revealed that it was, in fact, a robot that Wesley shot. They didn’t want to burden a human character with the knowledge that he killed his own father, no matter the provocation (and Angel and Spike’s endeavors to “comfort” Wes was some of the most darkly hilarious lines of the show.) But if it was a cyborg all along, what possible reason did he have not to snap Wesley’s neck in the vault rather than just knock him out. He had what he wanted, and Wes alive was only a liability. For that matter, why just hold a gun on him on the roof? “I don’t want to shoot you, Wesley.” Why the hëll not? Someone programmed him to act so much like Wes’s dad that he was unaware of his own status? C’mon. You can’t have a cyborg as sophisticated as what we saw and simultaneously limited. The only reason Wes is alive is that he’s a regular. It was still a great episode, deeply emotional. But when it was over I thought, “Hmm. That bit didn’t make much sense.”
Additional thought–I just LOVED the trailer for next week. Previously, when Dru has shown up in flashbacks on “Angel,” it presaged a Drusilla return in modern day. We can only hope that’s the case here. Hey, maybe they’ll call the episode “Dru Calling.”
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I have a feeling that if the old watchers tried to reform the council that Buffy might have a say about that. It might be the reason she’s in Europe. The last season of Buffy didn’t leave a particularly good flavor about the origins of the Watchers.
That said, you’d think that Angel might have an idea to form a new sort of Watchers guild. He’s got the resources as well as the contacts on both sides of who to watch and why.
As for the ‘retcon,’ until proven otherwise I’m assuming this is the same sort of change as Dawn’s. The world hasn’t changed…just people’s memories. No one thought particularly hard about their ‘real’ past on Buffy even after they learned that Dawn hadn’t been there. This is the opposite–no one’s really thinking about what has happened (it might be the nature of the spell). They accept what’s happened and move on.
As for Connor’s return: I came up with what I regard as the perfect return. We know that one ‘prophecy’ still stands: Connor will kill the Time Demon. I’d love to see Connor leaving for college, driving in his car and distracted for a moment while the Time Demon materializes in the road in front of him. *Thud* Dead demon melts away. ‘Prophecy’ fulfilled and Connor still unknowing.
The shooting scene reminded me more of the Firefly scene with a similar setup. The villain grabs a victim and begins his speech as the captain enters the ship and casually shoots the villain.
As for the ‘retcon,’ until proven otherwise I’m assuming this is the same sort of change as Dawn’s. The world hasn’t changed…just people’s memories. No one thought particularly hard about their ‘real’ past on Buffy even after they learned that Dawn hadn’t been there. This is the opposite–no one’s really thinking about what has happened (it might be the nature of the spell). They accept what’s happened and move on.
That’s pretty much how I think it is. It’s some spell which prevents them from remembering Conner, so they’ll get a bit confused anytime their brains start remembering anything involving Conner (like the Buffy Season Five spell involving Glory’s alter-ego). Wes and the gang probably have this sense that everything happened for a perfectly good reason, but they’re not inclined to remember what that reason is. Only if someone started asking questions about Conner would they realize that they have major memory gaps.
I loved when Wes shot his dad for two reasons.
1) As you already pointed out, it showed just how much Wes likes Fred.
2) The banter that just wasn’t there. Wes’s dad grabbed Fred and began the usual “I’ve got the girl you love” speech to which we’re usually given the “Don’t you dare kill her or I swear to hëll that you will in fact be going to hëll” speech; what we got was “I’ve got the” BAM!
I thought Alias was on ABC?
http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/gmlog/00000610.html#comments
Is it still beyond possibility that Wes’s dad hired/built/programmed the cyber-dad? It would explain his/it’s reluctance to kill Wes *and* the full extent of cyberdad’s knowledge. Howlikely is it that a pscyhe profile would know about the bird incident when Wes was a kid?
The robo-Roger didn’t kill Wesley because of the glamour that was used on it. It seems to me that it was meant to copy Wesley’s dad as perfectly as possible. It wasn’t programming – these were cyborgs anyway and still have human brains – but a very powerful spell. Roger would never kill his son, so the fake Roger would’t either.
Beyond which, the cyborgs were the good guys in their own minds. So I think that they might try to avoid killing unnecessarily.
Regarding that previous casting spoiler posted by Noble,
I think the idea of Andrew showing up as Watcher in training is sheer brilliance. It makes sense for the character as he was denied the easy out of a heroic death to make up for his past evil deeds. He now has to go the longer and harder route of trying to redeem himself for acts that he can never truly make for. Someone with that type of backstory just fits right in on Angel.
I also think that we could get some great comedic momemts as Wes sees his younger self in the bumbling, socially enept Watcher.
And on less secret matters, why does everyone assume that the guys behind the cyber-ninjas are good? Sure, Robo-dad said they were good but so what? He was a lying imposter. They didn’t kill anyone in the building, but the whole point was to take over Angel who is in charge of Wolfram & Hart. If they control him, they might get W&H, lock stock & barrel. Why kill the key personnel? I’ll also remind people that Hitler thought that exterminating the Jews was a holy mission. It didn’t make him good.
Finally, does anyone find it creepy the W&H has had an item that could turn Angel into a slave whenever they wanted just sitting in their vault?
Re: Spike’s Head Boy comment- I loved it, but couldn’t help but think that perhaps Spike was going overboard on the teasing- possibly because William (who was very much like Wesley pre-Conner) was Head Boy himself, or was passed over for same. Perhaps a little bitter?
Oh, well, just my $0.02.
To Julio Diaz, et al.:
Red kryptonite was introduced last year (season 2) as the red stone within everyone’s SENIOR rings!
Now unless I missed some mention of there not being a summer break, which is supposed to have covered his absence while Clark went rogue, presumably this (season 3) is their SENIOR year at Smallville High.
Lee,
The rings are an apparent continuity gaffe; in my school, we received our class rings our junior years. However, Smallville High could give them early.
As further proof of what — again — has been clearly established on the show repeatedly, I offer this article from the Smallville Torch online (an official site), which quotes juniors Lana, Chloe, and Pete on what they did last summer (or in other words, during the three-month gap between seasons two and three):
Poke around a little at the Torch and the Ledger — great sources of info that always tie in very close to the week’s episodes and offer hints to upcoming episodes — and you’ll find other references confirming that the four teens are juniors this year.
I agree that they probably got class rings a year earlier than most of us do/did, but they are juniors.
RE: Head Boy.
Those comments alone made the episode of Angel worthwile. They were hilarious. The only thing that would have been better is if later in the episode we had seen a report on Angel’s desk, with a cover page that says “Head Boy.”
Quoting Adam Hoffman: “one thing still gets me. Ninja Cyborgs? Could they think of anything geekier? It seems like something out of an X-Men comic from 1992.”
The ninja cyborgs were actually an homage to the old Dr. Who series with it’s “cybermen”… faceless, cybernetic warriors in black with disc-shaped explosive devices in their stomachs.
Another very good episode of Angel, with humor, the “wow” moment of Wesley shooting his “father” (Roy Dotrice’s resume might as well just say “Need a Father? Any Father? “), and the developing of the season’s on-going plotlines. All of the moments I most remember have been noted above, by PAD and others, but all were significant and/or funny enough to bear repeating: Spike’s line about sex with robots – I didn’t see it coming, but I instantly knew what he meant ;); he and Angel each trying to COMMISERATE with Wesley about KILLING THEIR FATHERS; and Angel finally fully realizing why Wesley had to take Connor, and his nice articulation of the kind of man Wesley is. (And Fred -“finally”, yes – getting a Wesley wake-up call, too.) A great jumping-off point for the rest of the season. And looking muchly forward to next – tomorrow’s ep, YES.
On the other hand, still no TV round-up for this week’s shows…
>sigh<
I need my fix, I say!
S’okay, Clay – we can hit ourselves over the head that we never saw the end of Angel coming from this weeks show.
Whoops – totally missed this mistake at the time; recently realized what I did, and glad I can still post on this thread.
Of course, I meant “COMMISERATE with Wesley about KILLING THEIR PARENTS“. Oops.